Preventive Maintenance Mistakes You Should Avoid

May 3, 2019

Unprecedented advancements in industrial technology have completely changed the way companies develop production and equipment reliability strategies. From improving product quality to increasing safety and reducing staff overhead, organizations invest heavily in order to achieve sustainable growth.

Preventive maintenance (PM) is something that hasn’t witnessed dramatic improvements in the last few decades. There are many widespread PM practices that don’t make sense in the 21st century. PM is about performing various maintenance activities that ensure equipment reliability by identifying problems before they take place. If done right, a PM strategy can bring in dramatic improvements to your business. This blog post will identify some of the preventive maintenance mistakes that you should avoid in order to ensure equipment reliability:

Skipping key equipment in your PM program

A PM program should be designed for all of your critical equipment; omitting a critical machine from your maintenance program can have a negative impact on your bottom line. The purpose of preventive maintenance is to avoid unexpected equipment failure. When companies don’t pay due attention to some of their equipment, it leads to major downtime events.

Not setting standard intervals

One of the major preventive maintenance mistakes is not setting standard intervals. Long intervals between PM tasks can reduce the effectiveness of your maintenance strategy. Equipment failure or repairs can cost more than what you could have spent on consistent maintenance activities. Therefore, establish appropriate frequencies for your scheduled maintenance in order to improve equipment performance and longevity.

Not taking feedback from maintenance technicians

The maintenance technicians probably know more about the equipment than the business owner or managers do. You should sit with your staff responsible for performing PM tasks and give them an opportunity to provide feedback so you can identify the areas which need to be improved. This is an effective way to optimize your PM program.

Not defining PM goals

You should clearly define your PM goals and what you want your staff to achieve. What should your maintenance technicians measure? What should they do to deal with various challenging or unexpected conditions? If you want to make the most of your PM program, be specific and clear about your goals and instructions.

Not using insights

A maintenance team should document almost everything in order to refine the PM activities in the future. During the preventive maintenance procedures, your maintenance team should identify systems that are expected to fail so that a strategy can be devised to resolve the problem in a timely manner. Maintenance software is useful when it comes to keeping track of data.

Avoid these mistakes to generate an increased return on your investment. It’s always advisable to rely on preventive measures rather than reactive strategies. If you need to talk to a preventive maintenance expert or need PM services in Edmonton, feel free to call Quality Millwright, a company where we provide PM and plant shutdown services to a broad range of industries. Contact us for more information!